Movement from the double object construction is not fully symmetrical
Anders Holmberg, Michelle Sheehan, Jenneke van der Wal
July 2017 

There is a movement asymmetry which appears in ditransitive constructions in a range of different languages, including languages that are known to be symmetrical for both A- and A-bar movement in the double object construction (DOC): A Theme object can be extracted (A-bar-moved) out of a Recipient (Goal) passive, but a Recipient cannot be extracted from a Theme passive. We assume that the DOC has the format [ApplP Recipient [Appl’ Appl [VP V Theme]]]], where languages vary in the Case-assigning properties of Appl. In symmetrical languages Appl can assign Case to either Recipient or Theme. We propose that ApplP, not vP, is the lower, thematic phase in passives, as Appl is the highest functional thematic head introducing an argument, and that there is a single escape hatch from phases. In Theme passives, the Theme moves initially to the edge of ApplP, and subsequently to specTP. This blocks A-bar movement of the Recipient, which gets transferred along with the lower phase. In the Recipient passive, the Recipient moves to specTP before transfer of the lower phase, and the Theme argument remains accessible as it occupies the outer specifier of ApplP. The languages discussed include Norwegian, Northwest British English, Lubukusu, Zulu, Sesotho, and Italian.

Format:	[ pdf ]
Reference:	lingbuzz/003075 (please use that when you cite this article)
Published in:	Draft - comments very welcome!
keywords:	keywords: passive, a-bar movement, phase theory, symmetry, double object construction, syntax
previous versions:	v1 [July 2016]
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